Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for managing refueling and charging of a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, which prevents charging from being performed during refueling, to prevent accidents attributable to the occurrence of gas fumes and static electricity.
Description of the Related Art
A plug-in hybrid vehicle is a type of a hybrid vehicle that has both an internal combustion engine, which produces driving power by burning fossil fuel, and an electric motor, which produces driving power using electric energy. A general hybrid vehicle converts the driving power of the combustion engine to charge a high-voltage battery, which supplies electric power to the electric motor. However, the plug-in hybrid vehicle has an additional device for receiving electric power by being directly connected to an external power source, and thus the high-voltage battery may be charged at energy stations, in addition to being charged by the conversion of the driving power produced by the combustion engine.
Meanwhile, to encourage the use of electric vehicles, regulations have been established for gas stations to also provide electric vehicle charging facilities. Under such regulated conditions, plug-in hybrid vehicles may refuel and charge a high-voltage battery for the electric motor at the same location.
Currently, for refueling and charging a battery for currently developed plug-in hybrid vehicles, fuel may be supplied regardless of the power conditions of the vehicle, such as an ignition (IG) OFF state, accessory (ACC) state, IG ON state, and IDLE state. Also, in the case of charging, slow charging is possible under the power conditions except for the IDLE state. However, additional safety devices are not applied for the case in which the plug-in hybrid vehicle is refueled simultaneously with slow charging.
When a process for refueling and a process for charging a battery are performed simultaneously when an additional safety device is not prepared as described above, the increase in gas fumes in gas stations (e.g., during summer or warm temperature conditions) and the increase in static electricity (e.g., during winter or cold temperature/dry conditions) may cause fire accidents and adversely affect electric vehicle charging facilities, thus leading to injuries or casualties.
The foregoing is intended merely to aid in the understanding of the background of the present invention, and is not intended to mean that the present invention falls within the purview of the related art that is already known to those skilled in the art.